


Unbalanced

by Peppermint_Miraculous (Peppermint_Shamrock)



Series: Peppermint's Spooktober One-shots [7]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Miraculous Spooktober, Mystery, Ret Gone, Spooktober, minor DJWifi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 09:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16427216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppermint_Shamrock/pseuds/Peppermint_Miraculous
Summary: There are exactly twelve students in Mlle Bustier’s class. And all twelve have the unsettling sense that something isn’t right with that number.Written for Miraculous Spooktober Day 27 Prompt - Where did [x] go?





	Unbalanced

**Author's Note:**

> Background Music: [Clock Tower](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvGjpQ9JKLE)
> 
> My last fic for Miraculous Spooktober! Hope you all enjoyed the stories.

Alya couldn’t shake the feeling that _something_ wasn’t right.

It wasn’t something she could explain or pin down. It was just a feeling. It was just there. And it was wrong, somehow. Very wrong.

For someone like her, someone who investigated and tried to find the truth no matter what it was, this was incredibly frustrating. To just have a feeling, a gut instinct, murmuring “wrong, wrong, wrong, something is wrong,” and to not even begin to know how to go about finding out what that _something_ was? It was going to drive her mad. Not the least because that instinct _was_ just a murmur – not a scream, like when her instincts told her she was in danger – just a faint trace of _something_ , nagging at her like a pebble stuck in her shoe. Only, no matter how hard she looked or shook her shoe, she couldn’t find or get rid of that tiny pebble.

At school, it was both worse, and better. If anything, that nagging feeling got stronger. But on the other hand, Alya could put a name to _something_ that was wrong, even if it wasn’t _that_ something.

It was too quiet.

Far too quiet.

Usually, before class started, there was talking amongst the students. But today, it was just…quiet. No one was talking. Everyone seemed…subdued, somehow, drawn in on themselves. Even Chloé seemed off – she wasn’t trying to get attention like she normally would.

_Does everyone else feel this weird thing, too?_

She watched Nino in front of her, trying to gauge without asking if he, too, felt that something was wrong. She frowned, and wondered why she wasn’t sitting with him. He was her boyfriend, after all, and neither of them had seatmates, so why shouldn’t she sit next to him?

She shook her head. She was trying to concentrate on the weird feeling; she shouldn’t be getting distracted by her boyfriend!

And yet…when her mind had been wandering down that path…it almost felt like a step closer to the answer…

But that didn’t make any sense. She wouldn’t be getting this way just about not sitting next to her boyfriend. And more than that, the whole _class_ certainly wouldn’t be getting this way just because Alya didn’t sit next to Nino.

Alya furrowed her brow. It didn’t make any sense. But it was _something_ , so without a second thought, she gathered up her bag and plopped down next to Nino, who started.

“There’s no reason I can’t sit here, right?” she asked, her voice sounding far too loud in the silent classroom.

“No,” he said slowly. “I guess there isn’t…”

But he sounded uncertain, as though there _was_ a reason Alya couldn’t sit next to him, but he didn’t quite know why. And that was all Alya needed to be certain she was onto something, here.

So, instead of paying attention to the day’s lessons, Alya spent class trying to work out just what that _something_ was. She’d been onto something with sitting next to Nino, but that was all that she had to go on. But maybe that was enough of a start.

There was a reason she shouldn’t sit by Nino. What possible reason could that be?

The obvious answer was that the seat was reserved for someone else. But who? Everyone was accounted for; no one was absent. Alya checked. Double checked, triple checked, even. She counted everyone in the classroom several times over, as though she expected the number to change.

Twelve. It was always twelve. But why did that sound wrong?

 _Someone else is supposed to be here_ , Alya concluded. _But who are they, and where did they go? And why can’t I remember them?_

But thirteen didn’t sound right, either. Alya would’ve pounded her head against the desk in frustration if she hadn’t been in the middle of class. She was almost certain now that that was it, that someone was missing, but why did that still sound wrong to her?

She looked over at Nino, wondering if he had worked out anything that she hadn’t. But although he seemed distracted and bothered by something, he was trying to pay attention to the lesson, unlike her. Still, she hoped that he would be able to help her…

But why? Why did she feel like Nino held the answers? Was it just wishful thinking? Was it because he was her dependable boyfriend? Was it…

Wait.

That was it.

Her boyfriend did have something to do with this. The very fact that he was her boyfriend was relevant. She was certain of this. But why?

_Think, Alya, think._

She reflected on her time spent hanging out with Nino, and found that a lot of her memory was unclear, at best. She grew excited, knowing that she was on the right track. She tried to concentrate, to bring those memories into focus, but there was just too much. It was all too vague or too mundane to focus on. She needed something big, something important. When they first met? No, that was pretty ordinary, at the time. How about, when they started dating?

…When _had_ they started dating?

Surely that ought to stick out in her mind? Yet, if anything, that was even fuzzier than the other memories.

The zoo…something to do with the zoo…they had been there, they had been…

…trapped in a cage? That sounded…right, but weird. Why would they have been trapped in a zoo animal cage? Why had there been no animals? Why had no one gotten them out? _How_ had they gotten out?

_Think! How did you get in that cage?_

But no matter how hard Alya tried to think about it, that memory escaped her. She could neither remember how she and Nino got trapped in a cage, nor how they escaped it, only that they had been in there and had comforted each other.

And Alya was certain that had _something_ to do with the missing person that she could also not remember.

So…why couldn’t she remember? What could mess with her and her classmates’ minds like that? Drugs? Hypnotism? Computer chips implanted in their brains?

Magic?

And more importantly, what could she _do_ about it?

She supposed she could start by talking to the rest of the class. Which is precisely what she did, just as class let out for lunch.

“Okay, everyone, enough is enough. We’ve got to talk.”

“Can’t it wait?” Chloé said, disdainfully.

“No,” Alya said firmly. “Because there’s _something_ wrong, and everyone here knows it. I can tell, because no one’s talking. You all can tell that there’s something wrong. There’s someone that we can’t remember and we can’t forget, who’s supposed to be here. You all feel it, right?”

Everyone shifted uncomfortably, and no one would meet Alya’s eyes.

“Ridiculous,” Chloé said, although there was the barest hint of a tremor in her voice.

“I feel…a bit off,” Nino admitted. There were various murmurs of agreement. “But what do you mean, there’s someone else supposed to be here?”

“Think about it,” she said. “You acted weird when I sat next to you, like I wasn’t supposed to take that seat.”

“I was just…surprised,” he said, but even he didn’t sound convinced.

“And how about when we started dating?” Alya continued. “We were locked in a zoo enclosure together, weren’t we? But who got us in there, and who got us out? No matter how much I try to remember, I can’t.”

Nino scrunched up his face in thought, then shook his head.

“I…don’t know.”

“See? I’m on to something.”

The room was silent for a few moments, before Max spoke up.

“This morning, Markov told me that some of his stored data had been corrupted. I was going to run a scan this afternoon.”

“I have blank pages in my sketchbooks,” Nathaniel said quietly. “Lots and lots of them, all spread out. I never skip pages. I’d never start a new sketchbook without filling up the old one completely.”

Soon, the whole class was spilling out all the strange things they’d noted. Alya tried her best to keep up with them all and file them away for further investigation.

“Someone, or something, has messed with our heads,” Alya pressed on. “And taken someone away, for who knows what purpose. We can’t just let this stand, right?”

“But, how is something like that possible?” Mylène asked. Alya listed off the possibilities she had thought of.

“Ridiculous,” Chloé said again. “Utterly ridiculous.”

“It is possible, Chloé,” Max cut in. “It’s been documented that several government intelligence agencies experimented with such techniques during…”

“It’s ridiculous,” she cut Max off. “Absolute nonsense, like the sort of thing that’d happen in those TV shows Adrien likes to watch.”

The room got very quiet again, and Alya felt that sense of _wrongness_ flare up in her brain again.

“Who’s Adrien?” Alix asked, finally. Chloé scoffed.

“Of course you know who Adrien is, he’s in…” she suddenly stopped, and grew pale, almost frightened, before continuing slowly and uncharacteristically quietly. “He’s not in our class. He’s never been to school…”

“So, it’s this Adrien that’s missing?” Kim asked.

Alya frowned.

“I don’t think that’s it. At least, not entirely. But maybe…maybe we should talk to this guy. Maybe he knows something. Chloé, do you think we could talk to him?”

Alya expected Chloé to fuss and bluster about how they weren’t worthy to talk to this friend of hers, but apparently the realization that something indeed was wrong had shaken her, and without another word, she pulled out her phone and dialed. When she spoke, she sounded as she normally did, but their was an unusual tenseness in her face.

“Adrichooouuuu,” she said into the receiver, “Why don’t you come to lunch with me today? It’s been _ages_ since we’ve hung out! Oh…okay, go ask them, then.”

For a few minutes, they all waited with Chloé. The expression she made as she listened to the response wasn’t promising.

“What do you mean, your parents won’t let you? I’m your _best friend_ , they know that! What’s the problem…but if you want to hang out with me, and I want to hang out with youuuu…ugh. Okay. Fiiiiine.”

So much for plan A. Still, they didn’t necessarily need the guy in person, right?

Alya snatched the phone out of Chloé’s hands. Chloé made an noise of indignation, but didn’t try to reclaim her phone.

“Hey, you,” Alya said into the receiver. “I have some questions for you. What do you know?”

“Uh…that’s…kind of a broad question?” he said. His voice was familiar and unfamiliar all at once. It sounded nothing like what Alya would have expected from a friend of Chloé’s, and yet wasn’t surprising at all. She knew him, once, but she had never met him. Nor was his voice the one she wanted to hear. She couldn’t explain it, but she knew there was someone else. There had to be.

“You feel it, don’t you?” she asked. “That something’s just…wrong? Like your memories are wrong, like someone is missing, like things are just a hair out of place and somehow that’s made the whole world wrong. And no matter what you do, you just can’t shake that feeling away.”

There was a long silence, and that was confirmation enough.

“…Who are you?” he said finally.

“Alya Césaire,” she said. “And I don’t know why, but when Chloé brought you up, I knew you’d have answers.”

“I…I don’t know,” he said. “Are you a friend of Chloé’s?”

“I wouldn’t say _that_ ,” Alya scoffed. “But we’re in the same class. And for a moment there, she thought you were, too. And I’m not sure that she was entirely wrong. And the thing is, I don’t think you’re the only one.”

“I don’t know if I can help you…but I’ll try.”

“So, tell me what you know.”

“I…” he hesitated. “I do feel…that stuff you mentioned. But it’s hazy.”

“Try,” Alya pleaded. “Just try to remember. Start with what you know is out of place. No matter how weird or insignificant it may seem.”

“Okay,” he said, and continued, haltingly. “I…I woke up crying, and I don’t know why. I feel like…like I’m grieving, but I don’t know who for. Thinking about this stuff makes me sad all over again.”

 _Grieving…interesting._ Of all the weird, uncomfortable feelings that sense of something being wrong struck in Alya, grief wasn’t one of them. She felt like someone was missing, of course, but she didn’t feel sad, just…unsettled. So what was different about Adrien? Had he been closer with the missing person?

Had he actually seen them get taken away or killed?

“Anything else?” she asked.

“It might sound silly, but…my room reeks of cheese. But there’s no cheese anywhere, and I don’t eat it, I’m lactose intolerant…”

Weird, but Alya made a note of that. It was probably relevant somehow.

“And…” he hesitated.

“Go on.”

“I…it sounds awful, I know, but…” he said reluctantly. “When my mom hugged me earlier, I just felt…this kind of chill go through me. That… _wrong_ feeling, multiplied by a hundred.”

_Interesting._

Over the receiver, Alya heard someone call in the distance.

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” Adrien said quietly. “If you want…have Chloé give you my number, we can talk more later.”

He hung up, and Alya was left with answers, but no solution.

.

.

.

“I just don’t know where to go from here,” Alya said. “I’m certain what Adrien told me is important, but I don’t know why. It’s like I have all these puzzle pieces, but nowhere to put them.”

She and Nino were having lunch together in the park, but Alya had barely touched her food. She _had_ to get to the bottom of this.

“Something was done to us,” Nino said. “Maybe if we figure out what, we can reverse it?”

“I don’t know, Nino. Because I think…whatever was done, it wasn’t something natural.”

“Magic?”

“Yeah. Even _Max_ thinks so.” And if even the resident “numbers and science” guy thought you were dealing with magic, it was probably true.

“Really? Why?”

“He’s been running scans on Markov and texting me the results. He says it’s definitely not a bug or an accident – whatever messed with Markov was deliberate, targeting specific data. But Max built that hardware and software himself. No one would be able to write a virus that tailored that would run on Markov, not unless they had been able to get familiar with how all his stuff worked.”

“That’s a good point,” Nino said. “There’s also Nathaniel’s sketchbook.”

“What about it?”

“Well, you can’t just _erase_ that kind of thing, not completely. No matter how hard you scrubbed out the lines, it’d never get _completely_ blank. There’s always be some marks left. And if someone had copied the drawings, they would’ve put them all in a row, right?”

“Yes! Exactly,” Alya said. “I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. That’s even better proof.”

“But who’d go to all this trouble?” Nino asked. “Magic or not, someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to what? Make it like some dude never existed? Why? What’s so important about this guy?”

“I don’t know, but you’re definitely asking the right questions,” Alya said. She tried picking at her food again, but she still wasn’t hungry. Yet, strangely, she kept finding her gaze wandering over the the bakery nearby. “Adrien said he was _grieving_. I think whatever happened, he saw it. Call it a hunch, but I think he’s closer to this than any of us. But why is he still around, while this other person isn’t? Why not take out both of them?”

“Maybe it was too much? I mean, for just one dude, they had to mess with all our memories, and probably lots of other people’s, mess with a robot, mess with sketchbooks, and all other sorts of things. Imagine how much more they’d have to do for two. Maybe the magic isn’t all powerful?”

“Maybe,” Alya said, her eyes still fixated on that bakery. She thought back to the last thing Adrien had said, about his mother. “But I wonder, if maybe they didn’t _want_ to get rid of him…”

She handed her uneaten lunch to Nino before he could respond, and stood up. She crossed to the edge of the park towards the bakery, where she stopped. Nino followed quickly behind her.

“What is it?” he asked.

Alya didn’t answer. She didn’t really know how to. It was just that damned feeling, that _something_. She felt like she should go in there. And yet, she hesitated. That wasn’t like her. What was holding her back?

Had she been to that bakery before? She couldn’t remember. But it felt like…

“You’re searching for someone.”

Alya and Nino both turned to see an elderly man with a tacky floral print shirt that stood out against the grey sky. He, too, was staring at the bakery.

“Yeah,” Alya said. She almost asked how he knew, but figured he probably had that same feeling as she and the class had.

“I am, as well. In fact, more has been lost than you two realize.”

“What do you mean?” Alya said, the thrill of potentially getting answers running through her. “What do you know?”

“There are two…items…that should be in my possession, but aren’t. Powerful items, and in the wrong hands, dangerous. And I fear we are experiencing the consequences.” His voice grew quiet, almost as if he was talking to himself. “The wish was made, but it was incomplete. The world is left unbalanced.”

 _Unbalanced_. Something about that one word seemed to sum up the entirety of that _something_ that Alya, that everyone, had been feeling all day. And this old man, whoever he was, seemed to know more than anyone else she had met. Perhaps he would even know how to fix things; perhaps she could help with the pieces she had gathered.

“Tell me _everything_ ,” Alya said.

**Author's Note:**

> Despite the cliffhanger ending, this is as far as I go with this oneshot.
> 
> As you probably gathered, this is the aftermath of a situation where Papillon won and made his wish. The price for undoing the past and restoring his wife ended up erasing Marinette from history (hence the "Ret Gone" tag) - but something went wrong. Likely Marinette herself interfered at the last minute, so her effects still linger and traces of the original timeline remain in people's subconscious minds.


End file.
